


Mistletoe

by misdre



Category: Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, Beyblade
Genre: Christmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 17:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8999323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misdre/pseuds/misdre
Summary: A short, silly story about the BBA kids and a mistletoe.





	

That December, Daichi noticed a small plant hanging over a doorway in the Mizuhara residence.

 

“The heck is that?” he asked out loud, and the only person present to give him an answer was Professor, because everyone else had already left the house to destroy each other in a snowball war outside.

 

“That is a mistletoe,” Professor answered him, because he was smart and had actually studied things from other cultures. “I would assume that Judy-san has hung it there.”

 

“But what's it for? Just a bunch of twigs,” Daichi pondered, giving the mistletoe a judging eye.

 

“It's used for Christmas decoration. The tradition originated from England. There's also a tradition of... well... when someone's standing under a mistletoe, you...” Professor's cheeks turned just slightly pink. “W-Well, you give them a... a ki–“

 

“Weird,” was Daichi's only comment before he dashed out of the door in the others' footprints and left Professor to stand alone in the hallway.

 

About an hour later, while crouching behind their self-made barricade of snow that shielded them from enemy attacks, Daichi asked Hiromi: “D'you know what a mistletoe is?”

 

“No,” she said, “what is it?”

 

“It's a Christmas decoration that just looks like a bunch of twigs,” Daichi explained, feeling very important for being more cultured than Hiromi was. “Max's mommy put one in their house over there, it's a tradition from E... uh... Ing... Ig... what was it again... Iglooland??”

 

“Iglooland?” the confused Hiromi repeated. “Igloos were used by Inuits, who lived in North America, so I guess it makes sense Max's mother would know about it...”

 

“And, and,” Daichi continued stubbornly, a little offended by the fact that Hiromi did know something so complicated about things he had no idea about, “apparently when you see someone standing below those twigs, you give them... umm... Wait, what was it that you give them again...?”

 

“Maybe a present?” Hiromi suggested. “Giving presents is part of Christmas in America, after all!”

 

“Yep, it had to be that!” Daichi agreed, and probably fully believed that Professor had said so after he had stopped listening. “You give presents under the mistletoe!”

 

“That's romantic...” commented Hiromi, who, like most Japanese people, knew Christmas as a day for lovers to spend time together.

 

Even later that day, after both of their teams had suffered a crushing defeat in the war, Hiromi and Takao made their way back to the Mizuhara residence to warm themselves up, while the rest were already going for a round of revenge. Takao would have also, but his shoes were full of snow and he needed new socks.

 

“'The heck is that?” he asked as he noticed the mistletoe in the doorway.

 

“It's a mistletoe!” Hiromi said immediately, and felt pretty important in turn for knowing something like that. “Judy-san brought it here from some place in North America with igloos! It's a meeting spot for people who like each other, to exchange presents under it as a Christmas tradition...”

 

While she was going all wobbly at the romantic thought, Takao wiped his nose on his sleeve and stared at the plant.

 

“That sounds kinda boring,” he commented, “wouldn't it be much more interesting to like, do a Bey battle with the person you like?? Isn't it kinda like exchanging presents or whatever?”

 

“Not at all,” Hiromi said.

 

“Hey, do you know what a mistletoe is?” Takao asked Rei several minutes later, after Rei had had enough of the wet and the cold and the fact that Kai had pretty much obliterated everyone anyway, and Takao was there to change into a third pair of socks.

 

“No,” Rei answered, very confused by this sudden topic, “what?”

 

“It's an American Beyblade tradition, you hang a bunch of twigs in an igloo – but there's no igloos here, of course, so it's inside the house – and then you wait for a person you like to be standing under it, and you exchange feelings with the person in a Bey battle!”

 

“Really?” Rei felt like he should have known about such a tradition involving Bey battles, but the fact that he didn't know about it was alarming and he needed to fill this hole in his knowledge immediately. “Where did you learn that?”

 

“Hiromi told me, I swear it's true! Max's mom has apparently put one here? It was in the hallway.”

 

Rei waited until Takao had left the house again, then went to the hallway, and after looking for “a bunch of twigs” somewhere in the room for a while, he spotted the small plant hanging over the doorway. It was a single branch, rather than a bunch of anything, and had green leaves and a red ribbon at its stem. Rei felt like he had seen something like this before, and it didn't have anything to do with Beyblade, but what reason would Hiromi have had to lie? Other than making fun of Takao. Well, it was a possibility.

 

But Rei was standing directly below the mistletoe, squinting at it with his head bent backwards, when the front door opened again, and Max stepped inside, covered in snow from head to toe.

 

“I think I've had enough too,” Max justified his appearance, and only after he had thrown a bunch of snowy clothes on the floor – where they most definitely didn't belong – he also took notice of the mistletoe, and the fact that Rei was throwing determined glances at it.

 

“The mistletoe?” Max asked, and the allusive tone in his voice went right over Rei's head.

 

Rei struck a pose of sorts, reaching his hand down to fumble for Driger and its launcher somewhere in the pockets of the winter coat he was still wearing. “Bring it.”

 

Max dropped his own coat on the floor, then pranced over to Rei. And Rei's hand definitely didn't reach Driger in time before Max stopped right in front of him, stood just a little bit on his toes, and pressed his lips against Rei's; it wasn't much of a kiss, because Max couldn't stop smirking and it took Rei several seconds to register what had even happened.

 

“Mama always puts the mistletoe there when she's here for Christmas,” Max said once he'd pulled away, still smiling widely, “so she's got an excuse to smooch Papa every time they walk through here. It's pretty funny.”

 

And then Max did a small whirl and walked away, to actually pick his wet clothes off the floor and take them elsewhere.

 

And Rei only stood there, his face the same colour as the ribbon on the mistletoe above his head, and wondered why he ever chose to believe anything Takao said.


End file.
